3.23.2014

March 23, 2014: We toast graduations, new jobs, weddings, New Year’s Eve, and retirements. But that’s the stuff of champagne, mostly. Wine is usually for the events in between, like dinners with friends and family. Yet some wines merit toasts, too.

I don’t think I’ve ever met a wine aficionado who isn’t in some way sentimental about at least one bottle he or she has found in the past. My father still talks about the 1978 Shown & Sons Napa Valley cabernet sauvignon he had in California (the vineyard is now called Heitz Cellar Trailside Vineyard.) For my mother, it is the 2004 Topaz, a California late harvest dessert wine. Her eyes brighten and she always remarks, sadly, that you can’t find that wine anymore.

When my sister turned 30, my father brought out a 1982 Baron Philippe de Rothschild Chateau Mouton Rothschild, a Bordeaux from Pauillac, France, to serve at her celebratory dinner. He had bought it many years ago with the clear intention of serving it on that birthday. For those who appreciate wine, vintages that correlate to a loved one’s birth year can be a thoughtful tribute that will likely be used to honor future celebratory occasions. Especially if you buy a case of that particular wine, these are the types of gifts that keep giving back.

Then there are wines that you think are worth the effort but just aren’t sure will be able to handle the pressure of being opened at that particular time. Should you serve it now, after it’s been in your cellar for decades, or would it be better to wait another five years — almost as if it were on a five-year plan — to share it with others? In these cases, it’s really hard to say what the best course of action is, unless you have more than one of that particular bottle and can essentially sample it throughout the years. Some forward-thinking people take that approach, knowing that wines do improve over time. Others are more willing to gamble and will accept the wine as it is right now. And then there are others who continue to store the unopened bottle, waiting, possibly, for what they think will be the right time. The problem with that approach is you may end up inadvertently waiting too long. Even unopened wine will eventually turn to vinegar.

Doing some research helps. Plenty of wine writers have insights into the region your wine hails from and the positive and negative aspects of that vintage’s growing year. You might even be able to find someone else who has had that same wine at a different point in time. It’s also very important to make sure that you’ve treated that particular bottle well throughout its time with you (there’s no way to tell how it was treated before you encountered it at the store).

Finally, one more way to complement your wine’s characteristics, should you decide to open it, would be to build a meal completely around it. Whether the wine will shrink or stand tall in the face of all that unanticipated attention is hard to predict. In the end, that depends on the strength of the wine itself. But certain carefully selected dishes can provide the support it needs for it to be at its best.

Once you do decide to open the wine, realize you’re taking a chance. After all, you chose to serve it at the table in the first place; no one else made you do it. You aren’t obligated to like it, of course. But don’t make it into something it’s not. There can be a lot of pressure when talking about a wine, particularly if it’s something substantial you’re uneasy sharing at the table, or if you’re worried about what your guests might think. If you haven’t had this particular wine before, be honest with your guests; you don't benefit from pretending to have knowledge that you don't actually have. Don’t use false or trumped-up descriptors that demean the wine and misrepresent its meaning to you.

If you do like the wine, be happy about the reasons it’s caught your attention. It’s unusual that a wine you’ve selected for an important event would fit so well at the table. Celebrate that it’s a good match. Accurate descriptors help you to better define its meaning to you. This helps draw a clear line between the idea of the wine and the wine itself.

Then raise a glass and say what you have to say.

(*This version includes some parts of the original, before they were cut from the Courier's version.)

March 2, 2014: People tell me it
happens all the time. They buy a wine based on published, glowing reviews and
yet, when they serve it at the dinner table, it’s just not what they expected.

Maybe that bottle of
chardonnay is too acidic. Maybe you’ve just opened a cabernet sauvignon that’s
too tannic. Either way, while the wine isn’t yet corked, it still doesn’t pass
the smell test.

Here are some ways to
rescue a bottle with a poor flavor profile from the clutches of the sink. Think
distractions. There are many.

Cheese is a delicious
conduit toward making a wine tolerable. Hard cheeses like cheddar and Parmesan
are good pairings with tannic wines. For acidic wines, try something creamy,
like Brie. Salty blue cheese pairs well with sweet ports, too.

In all of these
cases, it’s about the art of disguise. You are trying to shift attention away
from the poor-quality wine itself. Wine is a subjective experience and, in
every case, it’s best to do your own research. Yet keep this sales secret in
mind: Sometimes something unctuous helps to change the subject and can even
sell more wines.

If the wine is
distasteful yet still must be served, consider lowering its temperature. Wine
served at cool temperatures won’t give off as strong of a nose. Cold
temperatures can be an effective tactic in muting offending flavors that expose
inconsistencies or fundamental problems within the glass. Besides, very cold,
bad wine can temporarily stun your senses, especially if you expected more from
the bottle.

Here’s a wine that
aims high: The 2010 Cuvée Le Bec is a blend of syrah (44 percent), Grenache (34
percent), mourvedre (13 percent) and counoise (nine percent) grapes, the likes
of which hail from Santa Ynez Valley, Calif. It is Beckmen Vineyards’
interpretation of a specific style of red Côtes-du-Rhône.

The Rhône Valley is
north of Provence, a province in southeastern France. The four California-grown
grape varietals in the Le Bec fit the profile of a southern Rhône-style wine,
with one major difference: terroir. There is no one English word to describe
terroir. In French, it can refer to soil, climate or orientation to the sun and
elevation, all of which ultimately impact the flavors of the wine that end up
in your glass.

While the grapes
themselves can easily be transported to, and grown in, various other parts of
the world, terroir is particular to the regions where the wine is produced.
It’s a function of what exists yet isn’t always seen, acknowledged or heard.

The best
southern-Rhône-style reds, in my opinion, are robust yet nuanced. They are
often layered with distinctive red fruits, tannins and black pepper, and they
remain some of my favorite wines largely because of their complexity.

Grown from grapes in
the Santa Ynez Valley, Beckmen Vineyards’ Cuvée Le Bec has a different
approach. At 14 percent alcohol, this red wine lacks depth, yet still manages a
smooth finish. In some viticultural circles, it’s possible to negotiate an
intricate balance between the two. Others demand one over the other.

Beckmen Vineyards is
a Central Coast winery founded by Tom Beckmen and his son, Steve, in 1994. Tom
Beckmen, a self-described “music man,” was a traveling salesman who pioneered
the merger of music and computer applications. When he sold Roland Corp. U.S.,
a leading manufacturer and distributor of electronic music instruments, it was
to develop the winery as a hands-on farmer.

Tom grew up gathering
onions and picking tomatoes from the soil outside Chicago, where he spent his
childhood working on a ranch.

With his father, Steve
applied that work ethic and winemaking style to “maintaining character and
diversity. During any given vintage, Steve individually ferments as many as 100
small lots of fruit, often employing techniques such as native yeast
fermentation or whole cluster pressing to highlight the personality of a given
clone or block. Described by Steve as both “hands-off” and “hands-on,” this
approach has resulted in an acclaimed portfolio of wines that consistently
bridge the divide between power and elegance.”

Power and elegance
are good, strong words. So are character and diversity. I wish Beckmen
Vineyards all the best in achieving its goals.

writers:

this column runs as "bottle by bottle" in the evansville courier and press twice or so a month. the focus is on wines, food and how they intersect. if i receive gifts, i'll tell you. photo credits are noted. i buy most of my wines from winetree, varsity liquors, schnucks, the fresh market, kwik liquor and winestyles (in evansville, ind.); big red liquors and sahara mart (in bloomington, ind.); vecchio's italian market (in newburgh, ind.); whole foods (in st. louis); and binny's (in chicago.) also, i do try a number of wines that i don't necessarily mention in the column, through travels to france and other markets (germany, hungary, italy, etc.) that don't sell wines i can find here. those experiences factor into my tasting descriptions, even if i don't mention them in the column, so keep all that in mind. i write the column to tell my readers in the evansville, ind., area what i consider to be flavorful, balanced and good-value wines for sale in this area.